Birmingham Literature Festival 2017 Spring Edition

Spring Edition 21-23 APRIL 2017 WRITERS BOOKS IDEAS

www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

Welcome We’re two decades old!

I’m thrilled to present the Spring Edition of the Birmingham Literature Festival.

It’s a significant year for us, celebrating twenty years of sharing great writing within this great city.

But this year feels significant in other ways too. Making literature, and reading it, feels more important than ever. To be able to imagine someone else’s life gives us the possibility of understanding it better.

The Spring Edition will take us on a journey incorporating bicycles and canoes, beetles and book launches.

We welcome a host of writers from Birmingham and further afield, including Romania, Poland and the USA. Join in and enjoy!

See overleaf for venues, programme and festival pass details.

Jonathan Davidson, Festival Director

“A big thank you for a wonderful 10 days of wonderful thought-provoking events. I enjoyed everything I went to and will definitely be there for next year. Looking forward to it already.”

Festival attendee October 2016

Sunday21st 23rdApril April Friday Friday 21st April

Secret Storytelling Who needs Secret Cinema when you have Secret Storytelling - live, in Birmingham.

Internationally renowned storyteller Cat Weatherill will present true life stories in an unexpected venue in the city centre.

Audience members will be advised of the location shortly before the event takes place. Book now to be in on Birmingham Literature Festival’s best kept secret!

4-5.30pm Secret Location £10/£8 (concs.)

Luke Kennard with Dawn Foster You’re in debt, in trouble, facing eviction.

What do you do?

In Luke Kennard’s brilliant dystopia you join The Transition, a life-improvement scheme for Generation Rent. Kennard’s vision of the near future is both tender and fierce, and very funny. Isy Suttie says it’s “completely gripping”.

What’s standing between you and success?

Luke is an award-winning poet, critic and writer of fiction. He teaches creative writing at University of Birmingham.

Luke will be in conversation with Dawn Foster, writer on politics, social affairs and economics for The Guardian, London Review of Books, Independent and Times Literary Supplement. Her first book, Lean Out, is on feminism, austerity and corporate culture.

6-7.15pm Colmore Gate £8/£6.40 (concs.)

Festival Pass: FREE

Only Connect with Emma Gannon and Olivia Sudjic Emma Gannon and Olivia Sudjic are both the same age as the Internet and they’ve each written about a life lived more in than out of it.

Olivia’s debut novel Sympathy is the story of a young woman’s obsession with the online presence of a Japanese writer. Control Alt Delete is the compelling memoir of growing up online, by journalist and blogger Emma Gannon.

This will be a lively and thoughtful conversation about how we connect in the digital age.

7.45-8.45pm Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £10/£8 (concs.)

Festival Pass: FREE

Saturday 22nd April Dividing Lines Book Launch with Bidisha Short stories on theme of borders, boundaries and belonging We’re delighted to be launching Dividing Lines, an anthology of stories written by winners of The Asian Writer Short Story Prize. The prize exists to discover and recognise the very best new writing emerging from Asian writers.

Four of the shortlisted writers - Meera Betab, Farhana Khalique, Serena Patel and Ashok Patel - will read from their stories, and then be in conversation with broadcaster and journalist, Bidisha.

Dividing Lines is published by Dahlia Publishing and edited by Farhana Shaikh with a foreword by CG Menon.

In partnership with Sampad 2-3.30pm thestudiobirmingham £8/£6.40 (concs.), Festival Pass: FREE

From Romania, with love poetryartexchange is a unique crosscultural collaboration between nine British and Romanian poets. Each poet submitted two poems, read each other’s work, and created another two poems in response.

The University of Bucharest has published a book of the project, and Centrala Gallery will host an exhibition and sound installation, bringing the words to life.

In this special celebration five of the poets will read their poems and share their experience of taking part in the project.

The event will close with a drinks reception.

The poetryartexchange exhibition will be at Centrala until 3rd June www.centrala-space.org.uk.

3-5pm Centrala FREE event (but please book your place)

Natalie Haynes Honour Among Thebes Birmingham’s own Natalie Haynes, writer, broadcaster and comedian, takes on Sophocles in her second novel, The Children of Jocasta. A new telling of an ancient story, with women to the fore, The Observer finds it ‘vivid and affecting’.

To introduce the book Natalie will present a humorous history of Ancient Greece which she is calling ‘Honour Among Thebes’. We love it already.

“When you have grown up as I have, there is no security in not knowing things, in avoiding the ugliest truths because they can’t be faced”.

4-5pm thestudiobirmingham, £8/£6.40 (concs.)

Festival Pass: FREE

Saturday 22nd April Jess Phillips MP Everywoman Jess Phillips was elected MP for Birmingham Yardley in 2015. Before that she worked in the city with victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking.

Her new book Everywoman is her guide to speaking truth to power and it’s exactly as frank, funny and fearless as she is. Come and be inspired.

“Don’t believe it when people tell you noone will care what you say. If you want to write something, anything - do it”.

8-9.30pm thestudiobirmingham, £8/£6.40 (concs.), Festival Pass: FREE

An Evening with an Immigrant Poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in Nigeria’s Boko Haram territory. When their home is burned down

by Islamists, the family leave for England.

Inua tells his fantastic, ridiculous, moving story - from escaping fundamentalist Islam to performing at the National Theatre and drinking wine with the Queen, all the while without a country to belong to or a place to call home.

“Ellams’ poetry gleams with a dusty, worn, deeply original beauty and he remains such wonderfully generous company to keep on stage.” – Metro Inua’s debut poetry collection, After Hours, is published by Nine Arches Press 6-7.30pm the Door £10/£8 (concs.)

Festival Pass: FREE

The 20th year of great writers, performers, thinkers and speakers in Birmingham.

Get the latest updates: @bhamlitfest Facebook.com/bhamlitfest www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org Box Office: 0121 245 4455

Sunday 23rd April Beetle Queen

Poetry Primers Launch

with M.G.Leonard

Poetry Primers is an exciting collaboration between The Poetry School and Nine Arches Press, spotlighting talented emerging poets and supporting their development. This event sees the launch of Primers Volume 2, a collection showcasing work by Cynthia Miller (Birmingham), Ben Bransfield (Shropshire) and Marvin Thompson (South Wales).

M. G. Leonard is a writer of books, poems and screenplays. Beetle Boy, the story of a friendship between a boy and a beetle, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and longlisted for the Carnegie Greenaway Award and Branford Boase Award. The sequel, Beetle Queen, featuring the villainous Lucretia Cutter and her yellow ladybird spies, has just been published.

Join M.G.Leonard to hear more about the books, and her infectious enthusiasm for beetles. There will also be a very special opportunity to examine the Carlier Beetle Collection, one of best beetle collections in the country, developed by Birmingham entomologist Stuart Carlier in the early twentieth century, now held by the Birmingham Museums Trust.

“Truly great storytelling” - Michael Morpurgo Suggested age 7-11 11am-12.30pm Thinktank £6 for children (adults accompany for free)

Your MC for this special event with all three poets is Primers’ judge Jane Commane.

1-2.30pm Waterstones £3 Festival Pass: FREE

Hidden Nature with Alys Fowler Alys Fowler’s memoir, Hidden Nature, charts two journeys - her exploration of the 100 miles of navigable canals around Birmingham by canoe, and her falling in love with a woman after years of marriage to a man.

It’s a beautiful and moving book, and a unique guide to Birmingham’s hidden wilderness.

“The best maps are not published, are not accurate or even sensible, but are the maps we make ourselves about our cities, our kith and kin.”

Alys is an award-winning journalist and passionate gardener, a regular presenter of BBC Gardeners’ World and Guardian columnist.

3.30-5pm Canalside £8/£6.40 (concs.)

Festival Pass: FREE

Sunday 23rd April Xan Brooks and Sarah Phelps Xan Brooks is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. His debut novel, The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times, is a dark social realist fairy tale set in the 1920s. Xan is one of The Observer’s New Faces of Fiction 2017.

Sarah Phelps is a screenwriter. Her dark and thrilling adaptations of the Agatha Christie stories ‘And Then There Were None’ and ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ for BBC1 were widely acclaimed.

Sarah and Xan will discuss their fascination with the shadowy underside of England between the wars, and the dangers of historical nostalgia.

5.30-6.45pm Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8/£6.40 (concs.), Festival Pass: FREE

Lionel Shriver Festival Finale In her latest novel The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047, Lionel Shriver imagines America’s economic and social collapse. A border wall is built between America and Mexico, but this one is built

by Mexico to keep North Americans out.

Unsettling and entertaining in equal measure, Lionel Shriver is the perfect guide to an America changing faster than fiction can imagine.

“Plots set in the future are about what people fear in the present. They’re not about the future at all”.

7.30-8.45pm Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12/£9.60 (concs.), Festival Pass: FREE Sponsored by Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce

Workshops and Family Events Friday 21st April

Viviane SchwarzIllustration Workshop Join acclaimed picture book creator Viviane Schwarz for an adventure with the star of her new book, Henry Finch - the bird who strives for greatness, gets it all very wrong, then puts it right in the most surprising way. I am Henry Finch - groundbreaking philosophy in picture-book format - was crowned the most radical children’s book of the year in 2016. “Ideal for inquisitive kids”, says The Times.

This is a special opportunity to hear Viv talk about her work and then get her help to create your own picture book art. For all budding artists, writers, thinkers and dreamers.

Recommended age 6+ 2-3.30pm Centrala £6 for children (adults accompany for free)

Saturday 22nd April

Illustration Workshop with Aleksandra Cie´slak This workshop is led by leading Polish illustrator, Aleksandra Cieślak.

It’s all about using creative ways to communicate without words, and is based on Aleksandra’s latest book, This is a Book to Make, winner of a BolognaRagazzi award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2017. Using a mix of materials, young people will test if it’s possible to express themselves and communicate with each other by gesture, lines and marks. The work they create will be exhibited as a collage at Centrala Gallery.

Suitable for ages 7+ 11am-12.30pm Centrala £6 for children (adults accompany for free)

Workshops

Saturday 22nd April

Saturday 22nd April

Silent Reading and Mindful Writing

How to Write a Poetry App

Time to sit back, relax and reflect in the peaceful environment of Birmingham Buddhist Centre. Bring a book to read in silence to ease yourself into the morning, then after a short break, Charlie Jordan will lead a Mindfulness Writing workshop.

This workshop is a chance to press the pause button and refresh your writing practice. Learn how to calm your inner critic, move writers’ block out of the way and relax into your creative flow. Discover how mindfulness techniques can become part of your everyday life and help you enjoy the writing process again. Suitable for writers of all disciplines, and for beginners as well as established writers.

10am-1pm Birmingham Buddhist Centre £15/£12 (concs.)

Jeff Phelps turned his poem ‘River Passage’ into an app – come and find out how he did it, and learn how to make your own poetry app.

Jeff Phelps and producer William Gallagher will discuss the lessons learned and the opportunities discovered in the making of River Passage for iPhone.

This is a workshop for writers interested in developing their work digitally and reaching new audiences.

The workshop will close with a live performance of River Passage with music from Dan Phelps.

1-2.30pm Canalside £10/£8 (concs.)

Ticket includes free download of the River Passage app for iPhone.

Booking To book tickets and passes for any of these events, go to www.birminghamliteraturefestival. org/events or call the Box Office on 0121 245 4455 Concessions are available for: those with disabilities, those in full time education, in receipt of a pension and trade union members.

Group rates are also available via the Box Office, for groups of 10 or more for larger events.

Festival Pass Buy a Festival Pass to access all ten of our Birmingham Literature Festival main events!

For just £50*, the Festival Pass gets you into all 10 of the festival’s headline events.

Your pass also entitles you to 20% off all books at the Festival plus café discounts.

A portion of the price of the Festival Pass will also go towards programming great events for next year’s festival, helping to secure its future. *£40 concessions.

Ts & Cs at www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org or speak to the Box Office on 0121 245 4455

Programme Schedule Event Title Friday 21 April

Start Time

Finish Time

Venue

Roundhouse Rendezvous: Walking with Mandy Ross Viviane Schwarz- Illustration Event Roundhouse Rendezvous: Walking with Kurly McGeachie Secret Storytelling The Transition with Luke Kennard and Dawn Foster Only Connect with Emma Gannon and Olivia Sudjic

10:00 14:00 14:00

13:00 15:30 17:00

Roundhouse Centrala Roundhouse

16:00 18:00 19:45

17:30 19:15 20:45

Secret Location Colmore Gate Studio Theatre Library of Birmingham

10:00 11:00 10:00 14:00 14:00

13:00 12:30 13:00 15:30 17:00

Birmingham Buddhist Centre Centrala Roundhouse thestudiobirmingham Roundhouse

16:00 15:00 18:00 20:00

17:00 17:00 19:30 21:30

thestudiobirmingham Centrala The Door thestudiobirmingham

11:00 13.00 10:00 13:00 14:00 15:30 17:30 19:30

12:30 14:30 13:00 14:30 17:00 17:00 18:45 20:45

Thinktank Canalside Roundhouse Waterstones Roundhouse Canalside Studio Theatre Library of Birmingham Studio Theatre Library of Birmingham

Saturday 22 April Silent Reading and Mindful Writing Workshop Aleksandra Cieslak Family Illustration Workshop Roundhouse Rendezvous: Cycling with Matt Black Dividing Lines with Bidisha Roundhouse Rendezvous: Cycling with Kurly McGeachie Honour Among Thebes with Natalie Haynes From Romania with Love An Evening with an Immigrant Everywoman with Jess Phillips MP

Sunday 23 April Beetle Queen with M.G.Leonard How to Write a Poetry App Workshop Roundhouse Rendezvous: Canoeing with Alys Fowler Poetry Primers Launch Roundhouse Rendezvous: Canoeing with Jo Bell Hidden Nature with Alys Fowler Xan Brooks and Sarah Phelps Festival Finale with Lionel Shriver

Become a friend of Writing West Midlands Join us by becoming a Friend and help us develop writers of all ages across the region. You will also get special discounts at our events and workshops, including a discount on the Festival Pass and for our National Writers’ Conference.

For as little as £3 a month (or an annual payment of £30), you can make a real contribution to creative writing and literature activities in the West Midlands.

Join online www.writingwestmidlands.org or via The BOX. The benefits of becoming a Friend include: 10% off tickets for events, including at the Birmingham Literature Festival 20% off books at our events Exclusive quarterly newsletter 15% off any full price purchases at Foyles, Grand Central.

10% off any full price purchases at Waterstones Birmingham

10% off total bill at Marmalade at the Rep 10% off at Library of Birmingham Café 3 for 2 on all whisky masterclasses at Hard to Find Whisky 25% off Nine Arches Press books 2 for 1 offer on tickets to the RSC viewing tower

Workshops

Roundhouse Rendezvous Need some inspiration to get writing?

Want to explore hidden Birmingham?

Look no further than our series of creative walks, bike rides and canoe trips developed in partnership with the Canal & River Trust, National Trust, Birmingham Roundhouse, British Canoeing and Big Birmingham Bikes, and delivered by five fantastic writers.

First head out on foot, by bike or in a canoe, then use your adventure to help you write. Each activity will last for around an hour and the workshops for approximately an hour and a half.

Drinks are provided free of charge but please bring a snack to sustain you.

Suitable for adults and children aged 8 and over. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Workshops Walk-Write

Friday 21 April Take a towpath tour along to the Jewellery Quarter, stopping to explore hidden gems of the canalside, and wander back to The Roundhouse for a writing workshop led by Mandy Ross (10am-1pm) or Kurly McGeachie (2pm-5pm).

Cycle-Write

Saturday 22 April Cycle towards Perrot’s Folly, regarded

by Tolkien fans as a key inspiration for his work, returning to The Roundhouse for a writing workshop led by Matt Black (10am-1pm) or Kurly McGeachie (2pm5pm). Bikes, helmets and ride leaders supplied free from Big Birmingham Bikes.

You can bring your own bike if you wish, which will be checked for roadworthiness.

Canoe-Write

Sunday 23 April Take to the waterways of Birmingham by canoe for a unique perspective on the city, returning to dry land for a writing workshop at The Roundhouse led by Alys Fowler (10am-1pm) or Jo Bell (2pm-5pm).

Workshops for young people at both sessions will be led by Garrie Fletcher.

Canoes and instruction supplied free of charge from British Canoeing and B-ROW. Please dress comfortably: we advise that you don’t wear jeans, you do wear trainers, bring a waterproof coat and trousers, and a complete change of clothes. The canoes have a weight restriction of 17.5 stone.

Prices are £20/£16 (concs.) and £10 for those aged 16 and under

Roundhouse Writers Mandy Ross writes books for children and adults, as well as plays and poetry.

She is artistic co-director of Secret City Arts which works with community groups to bring to life the hidden histories of Birmingham and beyond.

Kurly McGeachie is a performance poet and rapper, in high demand across the city for his writing and performing workshops. He is a Birmingham Poet Laureate finalist.

Matt Black lives in Leamington Spa. He writes poems for adults and children and has worked for 20 years as a writer in schools and the community. He is currently working on a long poem about extreme weather commissioned by the University of Nottingham.

Jo Bell is a former Canal Poet Laureate and currently appears on Nationwide’s ‘Voice of the People’ ads. Her poetry collection Kith is published by Nine Arches Press. She is co-writing a handbook for poets - How to be a Poet and lives on a narrowboat.

Alys Fowler is an award-winning journalist, regular presenter of BBC Gardeners’ World and Guardian columnist. Her new book Hidden Nature charts her journey through the canals of Birmingham by canoe.

Garrie Fletcher writes short stories, novels and poems. His collection of short stories, Night Swimming, has just been published by Mantle Lane Press. He leads the Birmingham Young Writers’ Group for Writing West Midlands.

Venues The full addresses of our event locations are: Roundhouse 101 St Vincent St, Birmingham B16 8EB Centrala Unit 4 Minerva Works,158 Fazeley Street, B5 5RT Secret Location – To Be Revealed Colmore Gate 6 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2QX Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND Birmingham Buddhist Centre 11 Park Rd, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AB The Door Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP thestudiobirmingham 7 Cannon St, Birmingham B2 5EP Thinktank Millennium Point, Curzon St, Birmingham B4 7XG Waterstones 24-26 High St, Birmingham B4 7SL Canalside 196 Wharfside St, Birmingham B1 1RN

Birmingham Literature Festival is a project of Writing West Midlands.

Writing West Midlands is the literature development agency for the region.

Charity no. 1147710. Supported by Arts Council England. www.writingwestmidlands.org.

Events are suitable for adults and children 14+ unless otherwise stated.

With thanks With thanks to our funders and partners Arts Council England, Festivals Birmingham, Library of Birmingham, Birmingham Rep, Waterstones Birmingham, Big Birmingham Bikes, British Canoeing, B-ROW, Canal & River Trust, National Trust, Birmingham Roundhouse, Colmore Gate, Centrala Gallery, Birmingham Buddhist Centre, Nine Arches Press, The Poetry School, Thinktank, Canalside, thestudiobirmingham, and to all the writers and publishers.

Festival Sponsor

Festival Friends, Supporters & Benefactors Yasmin Ali

Narinder Dhami

Rachel Hursey

Sarah Mullen

Emma Austin-Jones

Ann Dolan

Liz Hyder

Marjorie Neilson

Kathryn Azarpay

Edward Dunphy

Fiona Joseph

Gareth Pert

Matt Black

Jenny Durston

Frances Kennedy

Karen Pincher

Sarah Bookey

Lorraine Francis

Ian Kennedy

Verity Relves

Lorraine Boyce

Danielle Fuller

Abda Khan

Martin Sketchley

Anne Cockitt

William Gallagher

Nadia Kingsley

Jeanette Sheppard

Jane Commane

Anna & Rob Ganley

Sarah Leavesley

Carolyn Cook

Lisa Godsal

Neil Lockwood

Philip Monks & Jenny Stephens

Lindsay Davis

Jacqueline Grant

Amos Mallard

Kit De Waal

Andrew Hollyhead

Paul McDonald

Peter Wakefield